Tembec To Idle Chetwynd Pulpmill
Prince George, B.C.- Tembec has announced it will indefinitely idle its pulpmill in Chetwynd as of September 16th. The decision will impact 115 employees at the mill.
The company cites market related conditions for the decision. “The high-yield pulp market has continued to soften over the past year. At today’s price levels, it is virtually impossible to maintain viable operations given the current cost structure of the Chetwynd mill,” stated Chris Black, Tembec Executive Vice President and President of the Paper and Paper Pulp Group.
“This is a difficult decision that we have not taken lightly since it has an impact on employees and on the region. We will continue to monitor the market and, in due course, reassess the situation accordingly,” he added.
High-yield pulp is used in printing and writing papers, paperboard as well as tissue and towelling. Pulp produced at the Chetwynd mill is shipped to primarily Asia. Tembec is the world’s leading producer of high-yield pulp. The mill was built in 1990 and has an annual production capacity of 240,000 tonnes. Tembec purchased the mill in 2002.
Comments
A pulp mill in the middle of the evergreen forested province that is not competitive in the world marketplace, and other pulp and/or sawmills that needs money from government to keep their employees trained and needs government subsidies in order to keep their machinery to an acceptable environmental and efficience standard.
And we think the City is not acting prudently by not maintaining the roads in a proper condition.
Something is happening here that is starting to be very uncomforting.
Fibre supply in Chetwynd is to costly.
They should have thought of that when they bought the mill.
Then again, I guess looking on the bright side, people had jobs for a while.
But then again, the company probably head a contingency plan to shut the mill if things do not work out and still come out okay. And the workers may have acted in the same way – felt they had a job, maybe were able to save for a litle safety net .. or not … and simply go with the flow.
Not a great life from my point of view. It should be better for all. Things being expendable is one thing. People is an entirely different story.
The chetwynd pulp mill is ideally placed for the type of pulp that it produces and while cost of chips is a big cost you also have to factor in cost of chemicals cost of hog and cost of taxes it all adds up real quick.
While 260,000 tons seems like a lot Northwood pulp makes over 560,000/yr(single largest producer of NBSK pulp in North America) the big mills in south America and Asia can pump out 2million tons of pulp per yr however they use Eycalyptus and bamboo for pulp and unlike northern trees can grow a hundred feet in 2 yrs
It’s hard to compete with mills that can pump out so much and considerably cheaper as well
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